The Rangers are worse without Rick Nash. Cam Ward is an elite goalie. Patrick Kane is producing because he's shooting more often. Those are three accepted truths, at the moment—but are they based in reality? Jesse Spector takes a look.

Wednesday was not the first time that the Buffalo Sabres showed Lindy Ruff the door after an extended period of meritorious service. On March 7, 1989, the Sabres traded Ruff, who had been with the team since debuting as a 19-year-old in 1979, to the New York Rangers for a fifth-round draft pick.

Ruff scored 102 of his 105 career goals as a member of the Sabres, then returned to Buffalo as a head coach in 1997 and went on to win 571 games. That makes him the second man in NHL history to score triple-digit goals for a team, then win 500 or more games for the same club. The other is Toe Blake, who scored 235 goals as a member of the Montreal Canadiens, winning the Stanley Cup twice (plus once with the Montreal Maroons), then coached the Habs to exactly 500 wins, with eight Cups.

Only two other 500-win NHL coaches scored 100 or more goals as players. Jacques Lemaire scored 366 goals for the Canadiens during his Hall of Fame career from 1967-79, but only lasted 97 games as coach of the Habs, winning 48 from 1984-85 before finding greater behind-the-bench success with the New Jersey Devils and Minnesota Wild, amassing 617 career victories. Billy Reay scored 103 of his 105 career goals for the Canadiens, then won 26 games as coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs and 516 behind the Chicago Blackhawks’ bench.

Ruff, Blake, Lemaire, and Reay should get some company in the 100-goal/500-win club before too long, as Los Angeles Kings coach Darryl Sutter, who scored 161 goals for the Blackhawks in his eight seasons as an NHL player, currently stands 59 wins away from 500.

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Missing something

If there is anything that a player can do to boost his shooting percentage, you'd think higher-quality shots would be the right place to start. Logically, even though missed shots are a separate category from shots on goal, you would think that a player with a high rate of misses is not putting the highest-quality shots on net, either.

Well, so far this season, Jarome Iginla has 57 shots on goal and 13 misses, meaning that 81.4 percent of his shot attempts have been on goal — 9.1 percent higher than last season. Iginla has only one goal, though, for a shooting percentage of 1.8, which is 10.9 points lower than where he was last season.

Iginla’s statistics are extreme, but of the 38 players who had 200 or more shots on goal last season and have had 40 or more this season, 17 have seen their shooting percentage rise as their percentage of on-target shot attempts dropped, or vice versa. That suggests no true correlation between the two numbers. Keep that in mind if anyone tries to tell you that Patrick Kane is having a great season because he is getting more pucks on net. He is having a great season, and he is getting more pucks on net — 82.4 percent of shot attempts this season, 74 percent last season — but that's not the reason his shooting percentage has gone from 9.1 to 21.4. Otherwise, what is the explanation for Iginla, or for John Tavares, whose shooting percentage is up 5.6 points even though his on-target rate is down 9.1?

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Settling in in St. Louis

If you go to a Blues game, show up on time, or you might miss the action. Of the 101 goals scored in St. Louis’ 17 games this season, 40 have been scored in the first period, with the Blues holding a 22-18 advantage over their opponents. The Blues have been outscored 18-14 in second periods, and are even with their opponents, 13-13, in third periods, while owning a 2-1 advantage in overtime.

For late goals, check out the Lightning, whose 16 games have featured 111 goals — 47 of which have come in the third period or overtime, with 29 of those belonging to Tampa Bay. The late fireworks, though, have not had much of an effect on the results of games. Guy Boucher’s club is 5-0 when leading after two periods, and 1-6-1 when trailing at the start of the third period.

Meaningful late goals are the domain of the Boston Bruins, who are 2-0-2 in games they have trailed after two periods. The Bruins have dominated late in games, with 17 of their 39 goals coming in the third period, while allowing only eight.

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Killing 'em softly

The Carolina Hurricanes are tied for the fourth-worst penalty kill in the NHL at 74.6 percent, and it is easy to see why. Among goalies who have played at least five games, the two who have faced the most shorthanded shots on a per-60 minutes basis are Dan Ellis at 62.4 and Cam Ward at 53.8.

Facing a ton of shots takes Ellis and Ward off the hook a bit, but not completely, because goalies still are the last line of defense and are habitually called upon to be their teams’ best penalty killers. Here are the 10 goaltenders who have faced the most shots per 60 minutes at 4-on-5, and where their teams’ penalty kills rank.

Dubnyk in particular stands out on this list, as unlike Bachman and Schneider, he has played the vast majority of his team’s games. It also is worth noting that the Oilers have been shorthanded 73 times this season, tied with the Sabres for the sixth-most opponent power play opportunities in the league. Incredibly, Dubnyk has a .939 save percentage when Edmonton is killing a penalty, compared to .907 at even strength. Only Corey Crawford (.952) and Craig Anderson (.945) have better shorthanded save percentages among NHL starters.

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Nash bridges

The New York Rangers have played two games while Rick Nash has been sidelined by an undisclosed injury, and they have lost both, in highly underwhelming offensive performances against the Montreal Canadiens and Ottawa Senators.

It should not be a surprise that the Rangers take a step back offensively with Nash out of the lineup, of course, because he’s a very talented player. Of the nine Rangers who have been on the ice with Nash for 50 or more minutes at even strength, the only ones with a higher Corsi rate (the number of shots directed towards the net while on the ice) without Nash than with him have been Marian Gaborik, Ryan McDonagh, Derek Stepan, and Anton Stralman.

The even strength goals for the Rangers in the last two games have been scored by… Ryan McDonagh and Anton Stralman. Stepan assisted on Stralman’s goal, and had an assist on Ryan Callahan’s power play goal in Ottawa. Gaborik, meanwhile, didn’t struggle for lack of trying – he had seven shots on goal in Thursday night’s overtime game.

Meanwhile, Brad Richards, who has a 55.5 percent Corsi rate compared to opponents while skating with Nash, and a 43.8 percent rate without him, found himself demoted in favor of Jeff Halpern as John Tortorella shuffled lines against Ottawa.